6th October 2006
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES PRESS FOR SPEEDIER WIPO TALKS ON GR, TK
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uring the annual General Assembly of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) — held from 25 September to 3 October in Geneva developing countries called for the process on on the protection of traditional knowledge (TK), folklore and genetic resources at the specialised Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) to be speeded up. They reemphasised the need for a legally binding instrument to this effect, in order to restrict the misappropriation of resources and biopiracy (the uncompensated and undisclosed use of genetic materials). Developed countries recognised the importance of the issue, but called for further discussions before looking at the possibility of a legally binding instrument.
Members also decided to postpone talks on a treaty on the harmonisation of countries’ national patent systems. Negotiations have broken down because developing countries have been calling for a broader scope of the negotiations, which they say should include, among other issues, disclosure of origin of genetic resource and TK in patent applications, prior informed consent of the resource and TK holders, and benefit sharing for developing countries at the latest informal meeting of the Standing Committee on the Law of Patents (SCP) in April this year (see Bridges Weekly, 26 April 2006). Patent harmonisation and the potential treaty will be revisited at next year’s General Assembly.
For a complete report on the WIPO General Assembly, see Bridges Weekly, 4 October 2006.
ICTSD reporting.
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